CONNECTIONS Myanmar One Child Fund

Your prayers and financial support have encouraged the growth of our orphanages spiritually, physically, and mentally. Your sacrificial donations and love have planted seeds of hope and the fear of the Lord in the lives of our orphans. Our heartfelt thanks and love go to our donors. We value your financial support, prayer, love, and generosity that you have given to our three orphanage homes: Carmel Children Home, New Hope Orphanage Home, and Lighthouse Orphanage Home.

The total number of orphans between all the homes is forty, with an estimated monthly support cost for food and clothing of $3,401.60 ($85.04 per child). The political situations are more challenging every day. However, we have been managing our time to witness night after night as opportunities arise. Thank you very much for your continued prayer support during this most critical situation in Myanmar.

The combined impacts of conflict, political instability, economic crisis, and longstanding poverty leave millions unable to access basic services and struggling to meet their family’s food needs. With three in four people dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, humanitarian support to restore rural households’ production is critical. Without a respite from conflict, political turbulence, and economic instability in sight, 2023 will be another year of dire struggle for the people of Myanmar.

I humbly would like to inform you regarding a specific need at our Carmel Children Home. When the children were still young, we combined boys and girls in one building. Now, as they have grown, the situation compels them to be housed separately. We urgently need to build a separate boys’ dormitory.

By the grace of God and through your previous sacrificial love and hard work, we were able to purchase land and now have laid the foundation for the boys’ dormitory. We have been working hard with some of our mission students to lay the foundation for the last three months. As our students need to return to their classwork, the foundation is finished. To complete the construction, at least $15,000 (USD) is needed. We constantly pray that God will open the door to supply the needed funds to complete the building.

Last month we did not meet the need for food costs for the three children’s homes we have in Myanmar. We worked in diligence just to feed them rice and vegetables.

Thank you so much for your love and vision for the orphans in Myanmar.

In his ministry, Chin

Kang Mon, National Bishop

In 2021, I was traveling and preaching in eastern Idaho. I had stopped to speak at one of our local churches in Pocatello when I met a somewhat quirky man named Jay. We visited together after the service, and he briefly shared a story of his adult conversion and life in Christ. He was passionate, knowledgeable, and a prolific writer (seven published books) on environmental Christianity and other subjects. Honestly, I am not easily impressed or enamored by people with their homespun theology of the Scripture. But something touched my heart about Jay’s sincerity, gentleness, and understanding of geology. Before my wife and I departed that evening, he handed me a personally signed book to read that examined how we as humans can first help save our souls and then save our planet. Since that time, I have come to appreciate the stories and facts shared by this Christian geologist. Most of all, I have developed a conviction that many Christians are ignoring their stewardship obligation for this earth and have allowed it to become a politically-charged issue that side-skirts our scriptural responsibility for this journey in the Father’s world.

Although many Christians are familiar with the Scriptures, two passages are profoundly disturbing as we observe the rapidly changing environment on the earth’s land and seas. The first passage comes from the first book of the Old Testament where creation is examined. It reads:

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion [governance, stewardship] over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26–31 NKJV)

In addition to this fracturing earth, we witness the increased moral, social, and psychological deterioration of humanity as well. We can with certainty confess that humankind has not stewarded this world very well, whether it be environmentally, socially, morally, or spiritually. This neglect or ignorance has propagated the fractures that are tearing apart the future of the earth.

In a second powerful witness of Scripture, there is a reminder that all of creation is looking toward God’s children for stewardship and accountability ordained by the Creator. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul references this influence that believers in Christ Jesus have concerning the earth:

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:19–23)

From the earliest restart after the global deluge that covered the earth in the days of Noah, the Scripture makes this commentary about humankind: These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 10:32–11:4)

We often do not realize that this was a blatant act of disobedience to the created purpose of humankind (Genesis 1:28). In this abandonment of our stewardship of the earth, there is another critical departure. What follows in the souls of men and women is worse. By the time the apostle Paul wrote to believers, the disobedience and sinfulness of humankind was polluting the souls of this world: For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:20–25)

Before we end this section on the deteriorating morality and thinking of humankind, we also must address the lack of urgency among God’s people to save souls. With the rapid rise in materialism, entertainment, leisure, and immorality, many Christians are looking toward some utopian leader to save their nation or the world from the fracturing of creative wholeness. This zealotry has gripped the church and seduces people to believe that we can somehow be saved by nationalism, partisanship, prosperity, and morals through elections, revolutions, reeducation, and balanced financial disbursements. But this is far from reality of what the New Testament

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Revelation 11:18 (KJV) states, “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”

“We are stewards of God's creation” is currently a statement or a subject that has received little attention from most believers. When God created the heavens and the earth, he designed every aspect of the environment, and the biblical testimony describes how God looked at what he had made: “... and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:25). Even with this statement, the Bible tells us that the “crown” of creation was not the environment, nor the other created beings, but the human being created in God’s image, after His likeness. Looking at the creation account, God gave man the dual responsibility of being a steward of creation when he said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (1:28). God's perspective also included a second responsibility— the preservation of the environment. This was given to man as a commandment, an order from God, which implied not only to use and transform it, but also to care for it.

Without this proper relationship between man and his environment, we would not be able to notice God's joy over creation as recorded in Genesis 1:31: “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

From the thoughts expressed in this reflection, we must ask ourselves these questions:

Is Christianity to blame for the environmental crisis? As Christians, how should we treat the physical world? What is the value of non-human life? How careful should we be with nature? How does God view non-human creation?

It is because of human hands and humanity’s fallen condition that inadequate/inappropriate use of nature occurs. This includes the indiscriminate exploitation of resources, which were created for man's use, and cruelty towards animals for which man’s responsibility/ stewardship included their care. I believe Adam carefully assigned the name to each of the animals expressing dominion, but also care. Furthermore, God instructed his people in the law to make proper use of the environment. For the children of Israel, appropriate use included not polluting the earth and allowing it to rest [from time to time]. God, in his omniscience, established these balances knowing that the resources exploited were few in relation to the existing population; however, the increase in population and the overuse of natural resources have made the challenge of preserving and restoring a very difficult task. As a result, the earth itself groans, awaiting the renewal of all things (Romans 8:19-23). During the pandemic, the earth rested, which had been a historical struggle since the 17th century. However, today we do not allow the earth to rest. The use of chemicals, mining, and the like have caused the earth to be again in the same state it was before the pandemic.

Since we are stewards over God's creation, what should our motivation be? Are we good stewards for pragmatic reasons or for moral reasons? The pragmatic approach posits that we must be good stewards of the world because it is necessary in order to survive. For example, if we irresponsibly cultivate the land, we lose the layer of good soil on the surface, jeopardizing the possibility of producing food. If we carelessly kill snakes, we will have a plague of rodents. If we recklessly extract copper from the mines, we cause horrendous erosion that damages the water. If we burn forests, we pollute the air, destroy oxygen-producing trees, and damage our oxygen supply. But the Bible rejects this as the primary motive for being good stewards.

Rather, the Scriptures beseech man to exercise good stewardship over the physical world because this demonstrates honor and respect for something God has created. The physical creation should not be exploited because it is morally wrong to misuse God's creation. When we have God's perspective, we farm responsibly, avoid unnecessary destruction of animal life, mine copper sensibly, and stop burning forests because we respect and honor what God has honored and respected. We show honor to the physical world with which God has a covenant. Christians, then, must be theologically responsible leaders. As God's stewards, we represent him when we honor his physical world. The opening verse, Revelation 11:18, tells us that God will also take into account, in his judgment, those who harm his creation; this includes harming the place where we live. Let us respect the rules that preserve our world.